EVENT: National Landcare Conference, Sydney 3-5 September 2012

Early bird conference registrations are now open for the National Landcare Conference to be held at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre from 3 - 5 September 2012.

This year’s conference will take place in Landcare Week and will be an exciting opportunity to bring together people that are interested in creating sustainable landscapes for the 21st century.

EVENT: Bushcare's Major Day Out, September 9th 2012

On Sunday September 9th in Landcare Week, at over 100 city and country locations across Australia, everyone is invited to gather and do their bit for our remaining bushland.

Bushcare’s Major Day Out is a day specifically designed to give of us the opportunity to find out what is being done and what can be done in our own neighbourhood. It’s a fun day where anyone, young and old can work alongside and learn from experts and experienced volunteers. There are a range of activities depending on the location; walks, planting, weed removal, photography workshops as well as native plant identification and well celebrated morning teas.

Councils, Landcare, Bushcare groups and others are invited to post the details of their event on the website. Please send your details (location, organiser, time, details etc) to: info (at) bushcaresmajordayout (dot) org.

CONTRIBUTE YOUR NEWS

Got some plant conservation news that could be of interest to the readers of ANPC News?

Email your news to anpc@anpc.asn.au making sure to put "For ANPC News" in the title.

Please keep your news item concise, preferably one paragraph, and provide a link that readers can click for further information. Images welcome.

ANPC NATIONAL CONFERENCE: Registration open & inviting abstracts for presentations, posters & workshops

Registration has opened for ANPC’s 9th National Conference to be held 29 October – 2 November 2012 in Canberra. 

The overall conference theme is plant conservation in Australia, achievement and future directions.

The conference will be relevant for the full range of people and groups involved in plant conservation in Australia and will provide a significant networking opportunity for participants.

Abstracts are invited for conference presentations and posters

Abstracts are now invited for conference presentations and posters. Abstracts should address a theme of the conference. Closing date for abstract submission is 17 August 2012. Further on abstract submission can be found here.

Would you like to run a conference workshop?

Day three of the conference is dedicated to workshops. Topics covered by previous conference workshops include: Using interactive identification keys; Seeds: from collection to germination; Conservation on private land; and Fundraising skills for small conservation groups.

To request a workshop on a particular theme or apply to run a workshop, please complete section 3 of the Abstract and Workshop Submission form (which can be found here) and submit by 17 August 2012.

ANPC seeking a Volunteer Social Media Coordinator

Are you a regular social media user?

ANPC is seeking a Volunteer Social Media Coordinator to manage Facebook and Twitter accounts for the ANPC.

To apply please email an expression of interest, outlining your experience in social media, to anpc@anpc.asn.au by Monday 25th June 2012.

The successful applicant will receive a free annual membership to the ANPC.

ANPC: Monitoring and community involvement explored in the latest edition of APC

ANPC members will have received issue 20 (4) of Australasian Plant Conservation by now.

The theme of the latest issue is monitoring and community involvement.

Articles include:

• The role of community groups in rare orchid monitoring in the West Australian wheatbelt
• Monitoring a nutrient manipulation experiment to restore grassy box-gum woodlands
• Monitoring for climate driven floristic shift in Australian subtropical rainforest
• Could crowdsourcing be used to detect and monitor invasives?
• Mitigating the effects of forest eucalypt dieback associated with psyllids and bell miners in World Heritage Areas
• The Threatened Crimson Spider Orchid, Albury NSW
• Monitoring the effects of fire on the Button Wrinklewort
• Monitoring the Bago Leek Orchid
• Vehicle access controls monitored through photopoints
• Introduction of Pellitory into revegetated coastal dunes to attract the Yellow Admiral Butterfly

Regular features include: updates from the New Zealand Plant Conservation Network, book reviews, information resources and useful websites, and research roundup.

Not a member and interested in becoming one? Visit our membership page.

ANPC: Exploring images from the past 21 years

As part of our 21st anniversary celebrations, the ANPC is collating images from the past 21 years. Volunteer Mark Grahame has been uploading photographs to ANPC’s Flickr photo sharing page.

A common theme in the images is the ‘hands-on’ nature of our forums and workshops. Here are a few ‘hands-on’ images from past ANPC events.

 Lichen identification workshop, Forum: What lies beneath? The role of soil biota in the health and rehabilitation of native vegetation, Canberra, ACT, 17-19 April, 2007.

Dr Kingsley Dixon conducting a seed dormancy workshop, 5th National Conference, Recovery: A Decade Towards a Biodiverse Future, Geelong from 24 February to 1 March 2003.

Collecting vegetation monitoring data, Jewels in the Landscape. A two day workshop on managing significant native vegetation remnants, 3 and 4 November 2011, Guyra, NSW.

Do you have any images of past ANPC activities that you are willing to share? If so, please contact the ANPC National Office.

NEWS: Myrtle Rust reaches Wet Tropics

The introduced plant disease Myrtle Rust has now naturalised in a number of areas in North Queensland. In the world heritage-listed Wet Tropics, Myrtle Rust has been found in ‘wild’ situations in the Mossman Gorge section of Daintree National Park, Barron Gorge and Kuranda National Park, at Smithfield Conservation Park near Cairns, and in a residential garden in Mareeba. Further south, it has now also been found in Mackay. The previous northern limit for naturalised occurrence was Yeppoon.

North Queensland has a large number of potentially susceptible species within the moist climatic zone favoured by the Rust.

Myrtle rust was first detected in Australia in April 2010 on the NSW Central Coast. It has since spread to affect a wide range of species in the Myrtaceae family including Australian natives such as eucalypts (Eucalyptus, Corymbia and Angophora spp.), bottle brush and paperbark (Callistemon and Melaleuca spp.), tea tree (Leptospermum spp.) and lilly-pilly (Syzygium spp.).

For more detail: North Queensland Register 24 May 2012

For current Queensland host list, and reporting and management advice, see Queensland Dept of Agriculture Fisheries & Forestry website.

NEWS: Assessing the conservation value of ex situ collections

A new collaborative project between BGCI and the Botanical Garden of Ghent University, Belgium is aiming to develop a protocol for the genetic management of ex situ plant collections for conservation and restoration. The project will focus on selected species of three unrelated Angiosperm groups: Hydrangea, Magnolia and Cactaceae.

Read more here.

NEWS: Four leading botanical gardens to create first online world flora catalogue

The World Flora Online project was recently launched.

The Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, The New York Botanical Garden and the Missouri Botanical Garden, have announced plans to develop the World Flora—the first modern, online catalogue of the world’s plants—to be made available by the year 2020.

This massive undertaking will include the compilation of information on up to 400,000 plant species worldwide.

Judy West, executive director of Australian National Botanic Gardens in Canberra, says Australia will be a "major contributor" to the project. "There's about 20,000 species in Australia which is a significant portion of the world's flora," she says.

Read more here and here.

NEWS: Fungi Festival 2012

Contributed by Tom May, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne.

Fungi Festival 2012, recently held in Hobart, Tasmania, combined a two-day Symposium on the Conservation and Management of Fungi, a debate on eating wild fungi and a weekend of forays and workshops.

The first day of the Symposium included overviews of the roles of fungi in ecosystems, covering different nutritional groups such as mycorrhizal fungi, lichens, saprotrophs and pathogens. There were also presentations on weedy fungi, managing fire for fungi and vegetation as a surrogate for fungi.

Peter Buchanan, representing the newly formed International Society for Fungal Conservation, shared his experiences of promoting the three F’s (Flora, Fauna and Fungi). An overview of fungal conservation in Australia preceded discussion about a strategy for the conservation of Australian fungi.

The second day of the Symposium focused on the roles of fungi in soil health, compost and food production as well as practical applications of fungi in areas such as mine site restoration, carbon sequestration, biocontrol and germination of rare orchids. Walter Jehne highlighted how lack of fungi in agricultural systems can lead to a reduction in the nutritional value of food.

On Friday evening, the debate on ‘Eating wild fungi: fun or foolhardy’ provided an entertaining mix of opinions about the topic, with audience acclamation supporting the ‘fun’ side.

 A group of fungi enthusiasts looking at images during Sarah Lloyd’s workshop on slime moulds in the Tarkine Hotel, Corinna. Photo: Tom May.

Over the weekend there was a variety of forays and workshops. Topics covered included identification of different groups of fungi and techniques for documenting and surveying fungi. There was also a foray for children—with a search for smelly, slimy and tiny fungi!

Fungi Festival 2012 was organised by Fungimap and NRM South (the natural resource management agency for southern Tasmania). The success of Fungi Festival 2012, with several hundred participants, suggests that it could become a regular event. In addition to the demand for learning opportunities about fungi, there is certainly scope for further discussions about utilising fungi in restoration, and for connecting researchers and practitioners in this area.

This article is an abridged version of a report that will appear in the next edition of Australsian Plant Conservation.  

INVITATION TO COMMENT: horse riding in NSW national parks & reserves

The NSW Office of Environment and Heritage has released the Draft strategic directions for horse riding in NSW national parks and reserves, to guide the provision of improved horse riding opportunities.

Interested members of the public are invited to make submissions by 30 June 2012.